Any parent can tell you that young children are very efficient spreaders of disease. It doesn’t matter what disease–they will spread it. It has to do with the fact that they have not yet learned the concept of personal space or some of the basic health rules. There is a reason most of the childhood acquired diseases are acquired in childhood. However, even though the coronavirus does not seem to be focused on the younger Americans, there are those who insist on putting masks on them. There are a number of reasons why that is a bad idea, but let’s just look at the science.

Yesterday Townhall reported the following:

NEW PEDIATRIC CASES:

New COVID-19 cases for children ages 5-17 – the vast majority of the school-aged population – have decreased 79% in the month of September, in the 54 Florida counties where school districts have no masking policy or are following state law by honoring the parental opt-out rule.

For comparison, COVID-19 cases for children 5-17 in the 13 districts that imposed forced-masking in schools have decreased 77%, on average.
 
POSITIVITY RATES:

The 54 districts with opt-outs or no mask policy have seen an average decrease of 65% in positivity from week ending Aug. 19 (when school started) to the week ending Sep. 30.

The 13 districts that broke the law to impose forced-masking have seen an average decrease of 67%.
 
That is to say, the data for this school year to date shows no impact of forced masking in schools on pediatric COVID-19 prevalence. This is not surprising, since there were no statistically significant differences in case rates in forced-masking versus mask-optional schools during the 2020-21 school year in Florida.

The article also notes:

Meanwhile, Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to decline across the state, despite largely maskless schools and no governmental vaccine mandates (via press release).

The article concludes:

As usual, the hard data supports sanity and normalcy not just in America’s schools, but for everyone else as well.

It is quite possible we are seeing the end of this epidemic. I am not so sure we will ever see the end of the government’s quest to use fear as a tool to acquire more power.